For every 1,000 live births in La Porte County, approximately nine infants die before reaching their first birthday. In 2018, the Northern Region (Elkhart, La Porte, Marshall, and St. Joseph Counties) saw five out of every 1,000 white babies and six out of every 1,000 Hispanic babies die before their first birthday. In the Northern Region’s black population, the rate is 18 out of every 1,000 babies born.
In response to La Porte County’s persistently high infant mortality rates, Healthcare Foundation of La Porte (HFL) is committed to its Partners for Healthier Babies (PHB) Initiative. Special Projects Manager Mary Wellnitz believes HFL can help to lower the infant mortality rate. Since the initiative’s inception in 2019, HFL has already seen the indictors move in the right direction. Preterm birth, low birth weight, and smoking during pregnancy all have declined in 2019.
“The overall goal is to have all babies in La Porte County born healthy so they can thrive,” Wellnitz said. “We want that for every single baby."
HFL leveraged one of their strongest skillsets—bringing together the right people—to best work toward solutions. HFL launched the Partners for Healthier Babies Council of over 25 people representing multiple agencies and sectors to begin a dialogue on La Porte County’s infant and maternal outcomes. This dialogue included babies with low birth weight, preterm births, disparities in birth outcomes, and receipt of early prenatal care.
County and state data are tracked to measure the progress being made to date through the initiative’s influence and provides a roadmap for ongoing improvement. Additionally, the Council monitors and supports statewide projects that support healthy babies and moms, like My Healthy Baby, incorporating successes and lessons learned into the Council’s plan of action.
"Healthcare Foundation of La Porte has recognized that infant mortality is a significant issue in our county and is also an indicator of other issues impacting the health of our residents," said Dr. Gary Wheeland, member of the HFL Board of Directors and Council. "While addressing the problem of infant mortality and all the issues surrounding it, we will also be assessing several phenomena that impact the health of residents in our county generally”.
Currently, the Council is exploring additional data to dive further into the problems affecting pregnancy, birth, and subsequent infant and early childhood issues. While any medical influences are, of course, crucial in identifying potential dangers, HFL also wants a more well-rounded representation of influences that could potentially factor into the problems. This can include social and economic situations, health disparities, insurance status, and other circumstances of a woman’s life. New opportunities in data collection, analysis, and reporting will be used to guide strategies that are founded in evolving evidence of their impact.
“If we just focus on one aspect of their life like smoking, and a woman has nothing healthy to eat, that’s not going to impact her or her baby in the long-run,” said Mary Wellnitz.
The Council, with the guidance of experts, will identify socio-economic barriers pregnant women and adolescents experience that, if identified early, individual-centered services can reduce negative impacts and build resilience.
With the help of our state partners and the council, HFL has been able to identify what works. The Council’s objectives are clear:
- Reduce premature births and low birth weight to improve the chances for our babies to survive and thrive.
- Reduce sleep-related infant deaths by reducing those risk factors that are preventable.
- Support better overall health and wellness for women and girls.
- Promote/expand home-based support programs to vulnerable mothers, fathers, and babies to promote healthy, thriving families and infants into their first 12 months of life.
- Implement a county-wide prenatal care system tailored to the unique needs, strengths, and priorities of individual communities to achieve a level of safer and more effective care that will take moms from their first prenatal appointment through delivery and beyond.
- Achieve health equity for all moms and babies by addressing social determinates of health in every PHB goal and strategy.
Changing the direction of infant mortality affects not only the birth of a child but also their future health. Wellnitz is proud of what HFL has accomplished thus far through the PHB Council. HFL and the Council will continue to connect with national and regional experts and members of the medical community to share best practices and ideas that will accelerate impact and sustain improvement.
“We are on track to achieve our goal," she said. "The next steps are to prioritize the strategies that will make the biggest impact and identify which partners are willing to take on those strategies,” Wellnitz said.
For more information about Healthcare Foundation of La Porte’s Partners for Healthier Babies Initiative, visit https://hflaporte.org/partnersforhealthierbabies/.
Reference for data: Indiana State Health Department, 2014-2018, Northern Region
